New round of storms to roll through northern Plains Friday
Locally damaging thunderstorms have been a common theme in parts of the High Plains so far this summer, and AccuWeather meteorologists say that yet another elevated risk of severe weather will exist into Friday night.
The general pattern over the past several weeks has featured a dome of heat parked over the southern Plains. As pieces of energy in the atmosphere move up and around this heat dome, it often results in thunderstorms, and occasionally long-lived clusters of storms.
"Strong, gusty thunderstorms will erupt along the northern rim of the heat," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike LeSeney.
"Ample energy in the atmosphere will allow the strongest of the storms to potentially produce hail and downpours, but the biggest threat will be damaging wind gusts," AccuWeather Meteorologist Adam Sadvary added.
After a tranquil start to the day, thunderstorms began to develop during the midday hours. The storms will likely strengthen as they track eastward across Montana throughout the late-day and evening hours on Friday.
Damaging wind is expected to be the biggest concern with the late-week storms with wind gusts that could be as strong as an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 90 mph. Winds this strong could pose a risk to high-profile vehicles traveling on roads across the region.
Additional storms are anticipated to develop farther to the south in Wyoming and in Saskatchewan. Coverage may be more sparse, but similar hazards are expected with any storms.
While storms often weaken after sunset, the storms may persist well after dark on Friday as they cross into the western part of the Dakotas, but will likely lose some steam as they traverse these states.
The same disturbance that was sparking severe weather over the parts of Montana, Wyoming and the western part of the Dakotas into Friday night will shift eastward on Saturday. The heating of the day will cause the storms to gain strength once again.
Areas from eastern North Dakota to central South Dakota will be at risk for storms packing high winds and hail.
Farther to the east, while thunderstorms are likely to be locally drenching and gusty, widespread severe weather is not anticipated over the Midwest this weekend.
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